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Serena van der Woodsen
Serena van der Woodsen is a character in Gossip Girl and the book series of the same name. The character is portrayed by Blake Lively in the television series. Novel Series In the Novel Series Serena comes back from Boarding School for unknown reasons. (Her boarding school years are later shown in a prequel) When she comes home she suddenly realises how much has changed. She is often 'given' the good things which makes her best friend Blair furious when she has to work for them, Serena goes to Yale at the end of the series. Television Series In the television series Serena has a complicated past, when first introduced she has come back to New York after her brother has tried to commit suicide. She is also finding it difficult to re-connect with her best friend Blair especially when it is revealed that Serena and Nate slept together. Her mother has already had four husbands and is revealed to be dating Bart Bass. Serena's life only gets more complicated, at present she has just admitted to Dan that she has feelings for him and appears to be re-starting their relationship. Season 1 When first introduced in the show's pilot episode, Serena is returning from a self-imposed year at boarding school in Connecticut. She is the daughter of Lily van der Woodsen, a wealthy socialite. Serena also has a troubled younger brother called Eric. Lily and Serena were first seen living in the New York Palace Hotel, while Eric was in a clinic after a suicide attempt. While Eric was the real reason for Serena's abrupt return, other rumours came about. After some effort, the former It Girl reunited with her estranged best friend Blair Waldorf, who didn't know Serena was leaving for boarding school until she was already gone. However, their friendship was shattered shortly afterwards when Blair finds out that shortly before she left town, a drunken Serena slept with Blair's boyfriend, Nate Archibald, who supposedly always had a thing for Serena. This leads to the two girls being locked in a rivalry once again. Meanwhile, Serena meets and goes out on a date with Brooklyn outsider Dan Humphrey after he returned her lost cellphone. The date ends up with them heading to the Dan's father's concert, but they are interrupted when his sister Jenny repeatedly texts Dan asking for help. When Dan and Serena show up at the Kiss on the Lips party they blew off, they find Chuck Bass all over Jenny. Dan punches Chuck, while Serena warns Chuck to stay away from Jenny. In response, Chuck calls Serena a slut and tells her that her life is over. At the Ivy Mixer, Blair incorrectly tells everyone that Serena is a patient at the Ostroff Center for a drug addiction. To save her brother the embarrassment, Serena plays along. When Eric tells Blair what really happened, she and Serena reconcile after Blair shows her an unsent letter. Dan and Serena's relationship is quite solid, but he hates the glamorous nature of her lifestyle. Serena continuosly tries to show him how much she's trying to change from her old ways. Serena then finds out that Rufus Humphrey, Dan's father, and Lily are trying to restart their old relationship. Serena pleads with her mother not to go through with it because of her feelings for Dan. This results in Lily accepting a marriage proposal from Bart Bass, Chuck's father. When Serena and Chuck's families are both sampling wedding dinners, an anonymous package full of pornography arrives for Serena. Thinking that Chuck is behind it, Serena naturally becomes angry with him. Shortly afterwards, several crates of champagne are sent to Serena at school, and yet again she believes it was sent by Chuck, who denies it. Serena becomes more furious when Eric brings her another anonymous package, which turns out to be cocaine. Only when Chuck is kicked out by his dad does Serena discover that it wasn't him sending the packages at all, but a former friend called Georgina Sparks. Georgina has recently returned from rehab in Switzerland, and expects her friendship with Serena to be back to its old state. However, Serena insists that she's not the same person anymore, knowing how much trouble she and Georgina used to get into. Not liking this, Georgina persuades Serena to go out with her, and spikes her drink with liquid ecstacy when Serena isn't looking. Serena wakes up the next morning, having missed her SATs. Realising that Georgie was behind it, Serena confronts her, letting Georgina know that their friendship is officially over. Furious, Georgina brings up a scandal they were both involved in. Serena leaves her apartment distressed, while hiding everything from Dan. This leads to Georgina calling herself 'Sarah' and starting up a friendship with Dan, who has no clue about her true identity. Georgina gives Serena a flash drive, supposedly containing footage of the real reason Serena left Manhattan. At a dinner with the Lily, Eric and Serena, Georgina 'accidentally' lets it slip that Eric is gay. Serena supports her brother while Lily doesn't know how to react. When Serena goes to meet Sarah, Dan's new friend, Serena is shocked to discover that it's actually Georgina. Georgina then threatens to show Dan the tape, and tells Serena that either they rekindle their friendship the way it was left, or everything will be revealed. With no-one else to turn to, Serena tells Blair her secret: she killed someone. Immediately after this, Serena leaves for a club and parties hard, leaving with several guys. Blair spends all night trying to find Serena, but eventually finds her and brings her back to the Waldorf's apartment. Blair enlists the help of Chuck and Nate, even though things are still tense between the three of them. Dan shows up looking for Serena, and the other three say that she doesn't want to see him. Still, Dan refuses to leave, until Serena goes to talk to him herself. Dan asked if she slept with someone else, and Serena says "Yes." In response, Dan says "I'm done" and leaves the apartment. Serena tells the others that she didn't actually sleep with anyone else, but it was better than knowing the real truth. Blair convinces Serena to tell her, Chuck and Nate the full story behind the night she supposedly killed someone. On the night that Serena and Nate slept together, Serena went to a hotel room afterwards, shocked by what she had just done. Also in the hotel room is Georgina and a coke addict, Pete. Georgina briefly leaves the room and Serena and Pete start making out, but Serena gets uncomfortable and eventually suggests that they both take some cocaine to get in the mood. Pete does a line, overdoses, and has a violent seizure. Both Serena and Georgina panic, and when Serena tries to call 911, Georgina stops her because of all the drugs in the room and the fact that they're underage. The whole incident is caught on tape by Georgina. As the two girls rush from the hotel, Serena calls 911 anyway and is unable to help but watch from across the street, waiting for Pete to come out relatively unharmed. Instead, he leaves in a body bag. A horrified Serena blames herself for Pete's death as she was the one who suggested he do the coke in the first place. Meanwhile, Lily finds the tape in Serena's dresser and watches it most of the way through. Thinking it's just a sex tape, and a recent one, she switches it off right before Pete's death occurs. Lily thinks the best path of action is to send Serena to a reformatory school, and tells her this at the rehearsal dinner for Lily and Bart's wedding. Blair tries to reason with Lily, telling her that Serena is in a lot of pain and has been hiding a dark secret. Serena eventually tells her mother the whole story, and they talk to Pete's parents, who don't blame her at all for Pete's death. Her guilt absolved, Serena goes to a concert featuring Rufus in order to win Dan back. She just misses Dan but gets a call from him at the concert. It's Georgina at the other end of the line, but Serena says that she's ready to tell the full truth, so she doesn't care about Georgina's blackmail threat. An enraged Georgina pulls Dan outside, still pretending to be Sarah, and kisses him. Confused and hurt, Serena is left wondering at the concert. Season 2 The first episode of the second season begins in the Hamptons, where Serena is rumored to be dating Nate but is in fact a ruse for Nate to have affair with an older woman. Meanwhile, she reflects throughout the summer and Dan cannot stop thinking about Serena, resolving to go to the Hamptons. After a few mishaps during the White party, two resume their relationship. The couple's return to New York has them return to old issues as Dan gives in to the polarity of their relationship being strained because of Serena's wealthy background and Dan's inability to accept the polarity of their relationship. The two end their relationship at an elevator during Blair's party, having succumbed to their issues during a blackout (The Dark Night). Gossip Girl cites the new school year, Serena's newly single status, and a possible return of Serena as the Queen Bee of Constance. Serena however, attempts to adjust to a friendlier relationship with Dan, she is hurt to find out that he has easily moved on from their relationship when he starts dating Amanda, a new student. Blair intervenes by torturing Amanda to separate her from Dan. Serena apologizes to both Dan and Amanda for Blair's actions and the three have drinks, where Blair's clique continues to meddle in their problems by setting her up with a Dalton student. Dan gradually realizes Serena is hurt but assumes that she is ruining his date with Amanda. Serena lashes out at Dan by telling Dan to leave, hurt by Dan's assumption. Isabel and Penelope ruin the night by throwing a Nairtini at Amanda. A frustrated Amanda leaves and Dan lashes out at Serena, who is innocent of the incident but Dan angrily tells her that she should own up to her real self. Serena, angered at Dan's accusation, confronts Blair's clique and tells them that the next time that they mess with Dan, it has to go through her first. Her statement indicates her return as an Queen Bee. The next morning brings back Serena and Blair's old rivalry, as the girls fawn over Serena and when Blair arrives Serena ties a bandanna around Blair neck, symbolically stating Serena's status as Queen. Serena publicly ostracizes Dan at the courtyard connecting Constance and St. Jude's, followed by Blair's clique. Serena and Blair's rivalry escalates during Fashion Week as the girls continue to fawn over Serena having seen her with Poppy Lifton, he new socialite friend and Serena earns public praise and media attention. Blair's attempts at winning her friends by inviting them at Eleanor's fashion show. Serena tries to reconcile with Blair but Blair turns her down. Blair is upset when she realizes that her mother has given Serena and Poppy Lifton, her new socialite friend, front row seats at her show. Blair again feels that her mother loves Serena more than her, and is angry that Serena will not be backstage with her as usual. Blair tries to sabotage the fashion show but it ends up being a huge success; this makes Blair even more jealous. In "New Haven Can Wait," Serena, angry at Blair, decides to watch her own back and attend an interview at Yale, where Blair always dreamed of attending. Serena was given a personal acceptance from the school's dean and is invited to his house for a special party. Though uninivited, Blair bribes her way into the party. After a game goes wrong, Serena and Blair decide they can never be friends and part ways. Serena begins a romance with Aaron Rose, an artist and Blair's new step-brother. She accepts his offer to travel to Argentina with him but they break up soon into the flight. Toward the end of the season, Serena begins a relationship with Gabriel, a man who is friends with Poppy Lifton. After getting her parents and their Upper East Side friends to invest in Gabriel's business that donates computers to third world countries, Serena realizes that both he and Poppy are conning them. She and the newly born-again Christian Georgina Sparks hatch a plan to catch them. However, the plan does not work out when Lily gets her daughter arrested. Gabriel and Poppy escape. In the final episode of the season, The Goodbye Gossip Girl, Gossip Girl sends a blast during their graduation commencement ceremony. Serena, angry that Gossip Girl has ruined the day, vows to find out who she is. They don't, however, uncover her and accept that they will never know her identity. At the end of the episode, Carter Baisen, a friend of Serena, tells her she has found the whereabouts of her father. Serena decides to go with Carter to meet him. Serena has been given a place at Brown, her mother's alma mater. Season 3 At the beginning of the season during the summer, Serena had been searching for her father and is in a relationship with Carter Baizen, and goes back to her partying ways. She decides to not go to Brown for another year, and gets a job at a publicist. Blair and Serena get into a feud, which is patched up by Nate and Chuck. Later, Serena gets a job in the office of Trip Van der Bilt, who is Nate's cousin, and is running for office as mayor of New York. Trip and Serena later have a relationship, even though Trip is married to Maureen. He tells Serena that he doesn't love Maureen and will leave her. Serena follows him out of town. Maureen however finds them, and bribes Serena with a letter from Serena's father, that contains gossip about Lily. Maureen says that Serena can be Trip's mistress, saying that she "will be Jackie Kennedy" and Serena "Marilyn Monroe. Serena refuses and tells Maureen t hat Trip will stay with her. However, when she finds out that Trip wants to stay with Maureen for his political career, she asks Trip to drive her back to New York. They have a car accident, and Serena is taken to hospital. Nate shouts at Trip and stays with Serena in the hospital. At present, Serena is living at Blair Waldorf's and is in a relationship with Nate. At the brink of the season, a scheming Jenny Humphrey attempted to steal Nate from Serena as she developed feelings for him. Eventually, Serena found about her scheming acts and it strained both her (Jenny) relationship with Serena and perhaps, Nate. In addition, Serena finally got to meet her long, lost father for the first time with the help of her ex-boyfriend Carter. Serena meets her father when her mother is diagnosed with cancer. However, it is revealed that she really wasn't and William van der Woodsen (William Baldwin) was using this as a scheme. Although Nate calls the police on William, Serena helps him escape. In the season finale, Serena and Dan share a "meaningless" kiss which leads her to break-up with Nate also she knew that she had feelings for Dan. She leaves for Paris with Blair, both dignifying themselves as beautiful, single, carefree women. Season 4 In "Belles de Jour", Serena has a thing for waiters and anyone on a vespa in Paris. When Blair meets who she thinks is a prince from Monaco, Serena goes on a double date with her which leads to an awkward identity confusion. Blair finds out about Serena's intentions to attend Columbia and they fight, but later make up. We discover that Chuck has been rescued by a mysterious woman. In the “Double Identity”, Serena finds Chuck after identifying "his body" at the morgue. Chuck and woman who nursed him back to health, Eva, want to leave Paris after seeing Blair. Even though Blair is supposed to go on a date with her prince (Louis Grimaldi), Serena asks that Blair stops Chuck from leaving. Blair discovers the ring that Chuck had intended for her. Back home, Nate is dating a girl named Juliet that is trying to help Nate with his social life. The episode finished with her removing pictures from Gossip Girl from a cork-board, leaving only Serena's mugshot. In "The Undergradute", the Gossip Girl website seems to have gotten an update that allows it to stream video live. Serena and Blair both confidently talk about joining the Hamilton House sorority at Columbia University. It turns out that both Penelope from Constance and Juliet are both members and it is discovered that only Blair got accepted. Juliet seems to be playing the jealousy card by telling Serena that Blair called the Hamilton House to tell them about the situation with Pete Fairman. At a party, Serena and Blair stage a fight that is played on Gossip Girl to expose Juliet's manipulative ways. Because Lily van der Woodsen is part of the Hamilton House, Juliet is kicked out, but Nate still forgives Juliet and kisses her. Serena moves into Blair's apartment. "A Touch of Eva" spends most of its time talking about Serena's internal struggle over who she will choose: Nate or Dan. Even though she promises to stay away from both to Blair, she meets with Dan, which proves to be helpful in unearthing some dirty secrets about Chuck's girlfriend, Eva. It is discovered that she was a prostitute, and Blair tries to use this against, him but it turns out he already knew. Serena tempts Dan, thinking that his relationship with Vanessa is on the rocks, but only pushes them further together. Blair succeeds in breaking Eva and Chuck apart. Chuck declares war and leaves Blair crying with Serena. In "Goodbye, Columbia", Serena is having some problems with her classes. Every morning a mysterious man in her building takes her taxi for one of his many one night stands which is making her late. Despite many attempts to meet with her professor, something seems to always get in the way, which makes her professor quite angry with her. We see Juliet meet with a man in jail who "wants to leave Serena with nothing, like she did to (him)". A post appears on Gossip Girl that Serena has an STD which creates a stir among both Dan and Nate. When Dan accompanies Nate to the health centre, Vanessa gets jealous enough to steal Serena's phone at Juliet's request. Juliet sends a message on her phone and only later do we discover that the message was a request of trading sexual favours for grades to the teacher that is already not pleased with Serena. Serena almost gets expelled when Vanessa confesses to stealing the phone and accidentally takes the blame for the message. Juliet bonds with Serena over the incident. In "Easy-J",Blair awakes to find Serena with an unmade bed, messy hair, and adorning the same clothes from the previous day. Serena admits to having spent the night with "The Cab Stealer." However, they spent the night talking of pop art in lieu of sleeping together. Serena says she refuses to be one of the women he hands off in a cab every morning. Blair explains her dream to Serena, who believes it to be about recently being Chuck's active target. Blair is unsure, however, and wonders aloud why the attacker would be female. After spending the night with Nate, Juliet departs early so as "not to be late to class." Nate is disappointed, hoping to have spent more time with her. Via phone, Dan assures him it's probably the truth. As Nate ends his call with Dan, getting in line to visit his Dad in prison, he spots a sheepish Juliet. Jenny returns to New York, only to face an angry Blair - willing to do anything to make "Little J" leave town again. On her way to class, Serena spots her cuddle-buddy from the night before while entering the building. Irked, Serena is further thrown off by the revelation that he is her Psychology of Business professor, a fact that threats their relationship. Blair visits the Van Der Woodsen residence and runs into Jenny. Outraged that Jenny is breaking the rules about being "banished," and after some verbal sparring, Blair grants her "amnesty 'till midnight" if Jenny refuses to be seen while in the city. Blair seeks out Chuck at Columbia, after a brief chat with Serena about the Cab Stealer turned Professor. She asks if he knows about Jenny Humphrey's return, and warns him it will damage his reputation as well as hers if the story about Jenny's virginity is outed. After talking to Chuck, Blair assigns her minions to stake-out the Van Der Woodsen residence, in order to make sure Jenny doesn't violate the terms of her Manhattan amnesty. Appearance and Style Serena is famous for her modeling gigs and her notable natural beauty. She has naturally flawless glossy blond hair and a tall, striking figure. Serena is considered, along with her on-again, off-again best friend Blair, the most beautiful girl on the Upper East Side. Personality Unlike Blair, who is considered to be the show's antiheroine, Serena can be considered more as a traditional heroine. Her motives are rarely selfish and she truly wants to be a better person. Also, her negative actions are generally motivated by a lack of foresight rather than real malice. Family Novel Series TV Series *Lily Humphrey (Mother) *William van der Woodsen (Father) *Eric van der Woodsen (Younger Brother) *Celia 'Cece' Rhodes (Maternal Grandmother) *Rick Rhodes (Maternal Grandfather, deceased) *Carol Rhodes (Maternal Aunt) *Chuck Bass (Adoptive Brother) *Bart Bass (Step-Father, deceased) *Jack Bass (Former Step-Uncle) *Rufus Humphrey (Step-Father) *Dan Humphrey (Step-Brother) *Jenny Humphrey (Step-Sister) *Scott Ronson (Maternal Half Brother) Romantic Relationships Novel Series TV Series * Nate Archibald (childhood unrequited crush; ex-boyfriend) * Dan Humphrey (first love; ex-boyfriend) * Aaron Rose (ex-boyfriend) * Gabriel Edwards (ex-boyfriend) * Carter Baizen (fling) * Trip Vanderbilt (affair) * Colin Forrester (dated) Quotes When I told my mum not to go away with Rufus, I told her it was because you and I were forever. I know I was right. - Serena saying it to Dan ﻿ ﻿ Etymology *Serena can be traced in its origin in the Latin language. The word is a derivative of the word 'Serenus' and the meaning that can be figured out from the use of the word is something that is 'clear, tranquil and serene'. *van der Woodsen is likely Dutch in origin. The Dutch term "van" or the German term "von" were used at the beginning of the phrase. Sometimes in Dutch phraseology, "de," "der," or "ter" was inserted, meaning "of" or "of the". Category:Characters Category:Main Characters Category:Females